Railroad switches enable a railway train to be guided from one track to another at a railway junction. The switch generally has a straight or through track and a diverging track. The switch may include a pair of linked tapering rails, which are commonly referred to as point rails. The point rails may be positioned between outer rails of the through track. The point rails may be actuated in a lateral direction and into one of two positions in order to determine whether a train should be led towards the straight path, or towards the diverging path.
Switches also have moving parts that actuate the point rails back and forth between the two positions in order to lead the train towards the through track or the diverging track. However, those skilled in the art will readily appreciate that moving parts typically require frequent inspections, maintainance, and replacement. For example, some moving switch elements include a lifetime of ten years/10,000 cycles maximum. Thus, in applications where switching may occur at rates of millions of cycles during the life of the track, replacement and maintainance of the moving parts within the track may become costly and time consuming. There are some partially passive switches currently available that only require one moving switch point or a sacrificial element to divert the train. However these partially passive switches and sacrificial elements also wear relatively quickly, and therefore need replacement as well.
Thus, there exists a continuing need in the art for an effective railroad switch that overcomes the above mentioned problems. Moreover, in general, there is also a continuing need in the art for alternative approaches that allow for railroad cars to switch tracks which also overcome the above mentioned problems.